Leighton House Museum

Leighton House Museum is the former studio-house of the great Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896). Located on the edge of London’s Holland Park, the house is one of the most extraordinary buildings of the nineteenth century.

The Arab Hall is the centrepiece of the house. Designed to display Leighton's priceless collection of over 1000 Islamic tiles, the interior evokes a compelling vision of the Orient. A golden mosaic frieze encricles the room, elaborate decorative paintwork illuminates the domed ceiling, coloured marbles clad the walls and in the centre a fountain adds a calming murmur to the sumptuous atmosphere.

The opulence of the Arab Hall continues through the other richly decorated interiors with gilded ceilings and walls lined with stunning peacock blue tiles by the ceramic artist William De Morgan. On the first floor is Leighton's grand painting studio, where he worked for many hours almost every day that he was at home. With its great dome and apse the studio is the heart and purpose of the house and was also the venue for Leighton's celebrated musical evenings.

Leighton was at the very centre of the London artworld and many of the leading figures of the day were welcomed into his extraordinary home. Today it draws visitors from around the world.

The Museum provides an unforgettable insight into Leighton’s private world and is a unique venue for the understanding and appreciation of Victorian art and architecture.

Venue Type:

Museum, Gallery, Historic house or home

Opening hours

Leighton House Museum is open daily except Tuesdays from 10.00 to 17.30. Last entry is 17.00pm.

Free guided tour every Wednesday and Sunday at 3pm

The House is closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Leighton House Museum is closed on Tuesdays.

Leighton House Museum has an outstanding collection of Leighton’s drawings. Most of these were acquired in the years immediately following the artist’s death. With the addition of later purchases the collection now comprises over seven hundred works.

Leighton's own collection also included works by many of his contemporaries, Burne Jones, Millais, Alma-Tadema and Albert Moore. Important works by these artists remain hanging in the house as well as over 80 examples of paintings and sculpture by Leighton himself.

Collection details

Architecture, Archives, Decorative and Applied Art, Fine Art

Key artists and exhibits

Frederic Lord Leighton

Burne-Jones

Millais

Frederick Watts

Alma-Tadema

Albert Moore

Victorian art and architecture

Islamic tiles

William De Morgan

Islam

See "Near and Middle East" entry. The Arab hall includes tiles carrying verses from the Qu'ran in praise of Allah.

Near & Middle East

Leighton House Museum contains a spectacular Arab Hall, lined with priceless tiles from Syria and Turkey that date from the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries. You can see pictures of the hall online, both as it is now, and as it was in 1879. The hall was built by Lord Leighton, an artist, after travels in Asia Minor and Greece in 1867.There are also a number of paintings in the house showing scenes from the Middle East. Leighton House have compiled an Arab tour which you can see online.

Exhibition details are listed below, you may need to scroll down to see them all.

Exhibition (temporary)

Flaming June: The Making Of An Icon

4 November 2016 — 2 April 2017 *on now

For the first time since it left for exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1895, Flaming June: The Making of an Icon brings back this iconic work of 19th century British art to the house in which it was painted and reunites it with the other pictures shown by Leighton in that year – his final submission, made only months before his death in 1896. The Maid with Golden Hair, Twixt Hope and Fear and Candida will be loaned from private collections with Lachrymae coming from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Flaming June from the Museo de Arte de Ponce.

Website

Alma-Tadema: At Home in Antiquity

7 July — 29 October 2017

Alma-Tadema: At Home in Antiquity (7 July – 29 October 2017) explores Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s fascination with the representation of domestic life in antiquity and how this interest related to his own domestic circumstances expressed through the two remarkable studio-houses that he created in St John’s Wood together with his wife Laura and daughters.

Born in the north of the Netherlands, the exhibition traces his early training and move to London in 1870 where he established a hugely successful career at the heart of the artistic establishment. His work fixed ideas in the popular imagination of what life in the ancient past ‘looked like’ – ideas and images that were taken to the stage, film and that remain with us today.

The exhibition includes important works by Tadema himself, his wife Laura and daughter Anna with loans coming from public and private collections internationally. At Home in Antiquity finds a perfect setting in Leighton’s own studio-house, interiors known to the Alma-Tademas as frequent callers and includes In My Studio presented by Alma-Tadema to Leighton as a token of his esteem and now in a private collection.

Website

Events details are listed below. You may need to scroll down or click on headers to see them all. For events that don't have a specific date see the 'Resources' tab above.

Guided tour

Flaming June: The Making of an icon - Curator-Led Tours

7 March 2017 6:30-7:30pm

For the first time since it left for exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1895, Leighton’s iconic painting Flaming June will return to its former home along with the four other pictures shown by the artist that same year – his final submission, made only months before his death in 1896. Join Senior Curator, Daniel Robbins for a very special evening as he will guide you through the house of former President of the Royal Academy and give you fascinating insights into the exhibition. Ticket price includes a complimentary glass of wine.

Admission

Website

Life Drawing in Leighton's Grand Studio

13 December 2016 1-4pm

10 January 2017 1-4pm

14 March 2017 1-4pm

Artist Ann Witheridge, founder of London Fine Art Studios, returns to Leighton House to lead a new series of her popular life-drawing sessions in the studio of the former president of the Royal Academy.

Open to artists of all levels, each afternoon will consist of a mixture of short exercises and longer poses, with reference to the work on show, Flaming June: The Making of an Icon (4 November 2016 - 2 April 2017) and expert tuition from Ann. Students will work on textured paper in charcoal or pencil. Materials will be available to purchase on the day or students can bring supplies with them. Leighton House Museum will provide boards and easels.

Suitable for

Not suitable for children

Admission

£30

Website

An Evening of Live Music at Leighton House Museum

13 January 2017 6:30-9pm

Leighton House Museum's Friday Lates are the perfect opportunity to experience the museum out of hours and discover our current exhibition Flaming June: The Making Of An Icon while enjoying a glass of wine. Choosing from a classical to a jazz repertoire, each event features a live band, creating a different atmosphere in Lord Leighton’s studio.

Join us on Friday 18 November 2016 for Phelan Burgoyne Quartet or on Friday 13 January 2017 for the duet Katy Jungmann & Chris Jerome.

Admission

£12, £10, 50% National Trust & National Art Pass (Fees include access to Leighton House Museum, Flaming June exhibition, live concert and a free glass of wine).

Website

Guided Tours With Museum Guides

19 January 2017 3-4pm

14 February 2017 6:30-7:30pm

For the first time since it left for exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1895, Leighton’s iconic painting Flaming June will return to its former home along with the four other pictures shown by the artist that same year – his final submission, made only months before his death in 1896. Join our expert tour guides for a very special talk as they will guide you through the house of former President of the Royal Academy and give you fascinating insights into the exhibition. Ticket price includes a complimentary glass of wine on Tuesday 14 February 2017.

Admission

£15

Website

Flaming June: A Practical Colour Workshop

14 February 2017 1-4pm

Taking place in Leighton’s Grand studio, where the artist painted his most celebrated works, this three-hour workshop, led by Scott Pohlschmidt, Director of Lavender Hill Colours, explores the use of colour and fabric in Flaming June. Students will learn about the cadmium family - yellow, orange and red - a heavy metal based pigment mixed in oil and predominant in Leighton's famous work Flaming June. In the second half of the workshop, attention will turn to how to paint fabric, the anatomy of cloth, where it begins and ends and how to render the folds to greatest effect.

Suitable for

Not suitable for children

Admission

£35

Website

The Muse, a Play by Palimsest at Leighton House Museum

22 — 30 March 2017

Following the sell-out success of The Muse during A Victorian Obsession exhibition (Leighton House Museum, November 2014 – April 2015), Leighton House Museum is delighted to be working again with Palimpsest theatre, film and web company to restage this multi-media play that explores the relationship between Frederic, Lord Leighton, one of the most influential Victorian artists and President of the Royal Academy (1878 – 1896) and Dorothy Dene (aka Ada Pullan), his model, muse and confidante. Staged in Leighton's studio, where Dorothy so often posed for the artist, and based on extensive new research, The Muse is a must see.

Website

E-mail

Telephone

020 7602 3316

Fax

020 7371 2467

All information is drawn from or provided by the venues themselves and every effort is made to ensure it is correct. Please remember to double check opening hours with the venue concerned before making a special visit.